Apple says new MacBook Airs to ship first week of November

Apple Store customers who ordered Apple's new 45-nanometer MacBook Airs with the understanding that they would not ship until "Early November" now have a more definitive date to go by.

AppleInsider reader Miguel, who purchased a custom configured 1.86GHz model with a 128GB Solid State Drive and Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter, saw his shipment status updated to November 5th on Thursday. According to Apple, the product should arrive within five days thereafter. Meanwhile, some German Apple Store customers have received ship quotes for October 30th.

The original MacBook Air contained a 65-nanometer versions of the processor that Intel shrunk extensively and exclusively for Apple and Lenovo, a spokesperson for the chipmaker said.

The new 45-nanometer chips are being employed by several OEM's in addition to Apple. Nicknamed the Core 2 Duo S, the 1.6GHz and 1.86GHz parts run at nearly the same clock speeds as their processors used in the first-generation MacBook Air, but support a faster 1.06GHz system bus (up from 800MHz) and a larger 6MB Level 2 onboard memory cache.

MacBook Airs will start shipping in about three weeks.

In Germany, the estimated ship date is even earlier: Oct 30th.

They new 45-nanometer chips also consume less power at just 17W compared to the 20W of the custom-ordered 65-nanometer versions.

In addition to gaining NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400M integrated graphics system and industry standard Mini DisplayPort, the new MacBook Airs also run on a new version of Intel's special-run 'small form factor' mobile processors introduced in August.

Is the mini-DisplayPort really an industry standard or just another Apple proprietary connector?

I ask as someone who is using a mini-DVI to DVI dongle connector for my blackbook. The dongle is just heavy enough and bulky enough to occasionally be pulled from the socket on the side of the laptop. What would've been ideal is a mini-DVI to DVI cable (6' or so), but only Apple and the BestBuy store brand even make a mini-DVI dongle and nobody makes an actual cable. Not to mention the dongle and DVI connector is fugly.

The specs of the new MacBook Air seem very impressive. I am delighted that a 128 Gb SSD hard drive is now available, although I would really like one with above 250 Gbs of space.

I would be very grateful if anyone can interpret what the new chips and graphics processor mean in terms of real world performance, especially playing DVDs, running Call of Duty 4, and manipulating large Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Secondly, i noticed that during his keynote speech, Steve Jobs didn't show the front of the revised MacBook Air. So does anyone know whether it will get the new buttonless trackpad and the same screen as the 13" MacBook with the black surround?

Hi, I'm a long time reader/first time poster and thought it was time to jump into the conversation.

Are there any indications as to who makes the new ssd drives and any performance improvements over the previous 64gb option in the gen 1 air? I haven't seen this discussed anywhere and am curious as it could be a decisive factor for my upgrade decision.

The difference between the Nov. 5 ship date and the Oct. 30 ship date is the fact that the latter is a BTO configuration (with the SSD hard drive). If you ordered a stock model, it will probably ship in late October.

I hope it stands the test of time and evolves into an even more amazing product than it is now. Maybe the Air will become the new MacBook, where the current (Aluminum) MacBook becomes the new 13" MacBook Pro!